Obit: VandeBerg, Zona (1922 - 2010)

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 
 

Surnames: VandeBerg, Raine, Witt, Farrington, Antonacci, Evenson 
 

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) March 3, 2010 
 

VandeBerg, Zona (21 April 1922 - 23 February 2010) 
 

Zona (Raine) VandeBerg, 87, died a t her home Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010, in Madison following several years of struggling with Parkinson’s disease. 
 

She was born April 21, 1922, in Neillsville at the home of her parents, Alfred and Elsie Raine.  She was baptized in the Neillsville Methodist Church and graduated as co-salutatorian of the Neillsville High School Class of 1940.  Zona graduated from the Madison Business College, following which she was employed as a stenographer/typist at the FBI in Washington, DC until her marriage to Gale VandeBerg in August of 1943.  They then lived in Dorchester, where her husband was a high school teacher from 1943 - 1945.  They then moved to Appleton where he served as county/university-extension agent until 1954, and Zona served for a period as secretary to insurance executive and State Senator Gordon Bubolz.  They then moved to Madison where he served as a professor on the UW-Madison Campus.  
 

Zona, with her husband, especially loved traveling with her children and grandchildren. She compiled separate notebooks for each of her three children of over a dozen of their most extensive travels with narratives of each day, plus pictures and mementos - such as several trips to Hawaii, to the Yukon and Alaska, to Washington D. C., to winter times in Florida, to the national parks, to many of the states and to Europe as well as Wisconsin’s best and most scenic offerings.  Zona devoted her life to rearing their children and managing the family affairs, allowing her husband to devote most of his energies to his profession. Her children and grandchildren were the beneficiaries of her famous culinary skills and skills as a seamstress. She left each of her three children individual handwritten detailed anecdotes and pictures of their lives from their birth through their graduation from the University of Wisconsin.  She also left a special pictorial and written history of several generations of her own birth family.   
 

She will be remembered for her gentleness, for her quiet compassion and her love and devotion to her children and the well-being of her family.  Zona was a member of the Bethany United Methodist Church in Madison. She enjoyed her experiences as a Sunday school teacher, a Cub Scout leader and a volunteer 4-H leader. 
 

She is survived by her husband and by her children, Sharon (Ron) Witt, Kenosha, John (Jane) VandeBerg, San Antonio, TX and Jerry (Keiko) VandeBerg of Madison; and by seven grandchildren, Lisa Witt, Reedsburg, Christina (Witt) Farrington, Kenosha, Vanessa (Witt) Antonacci, Watertown, Amy (Witt) Evenson, Hartland, Jason (Alicia) VandeBerg and James (Lauren) VandeBerg of San Antonio and Jay VandeBerg of Madison plus 13 great-grandchildren. 
 

Her parents and her sister, Lela Raine, preceded her in death. 
 

Funeral services were held Feb. 27 at 11 a.m. at the Bethany United Methodist Church, Madison, with visitation one hour prior to the service. A private burial service was held at Madison’s Forest Hill Cemetery. 
 

Memorials may be given to The Bethany United Methodist Church, 3910 Mineral Point Road, Madison 53705; Hospice Care, 5395 E. Cheryl Parkway, Madison 53711; or the Oakwood Foundations at 6201 Mineral Point Rd, Madison 53705.